HEADLINE: Delhi police chief faces malfeasance charges

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DELHI, La. Documents filed in Fifth Judicial District Court accuse Delhi Police Chief Gregg McKinney of pocketing eight-thousand-376 dollars in traffic fines and other money that should have gone to the town.

McKinney is accused with taking the money on 25 occasions between March 2005 and July 2005.

The charges resulted from a six-month state police investigation requested by the Richland Parish Sheriff Charles McDonald three days after a July 29th fire destroyed McKinney's office and the police department's evidence room.

As a result of the investigation, McKinney was arrested in early August on 26 counts of malfeasance in office, aggravated arson, one count of felony theft, one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and five counts of obstruction of justice.

District Attorney Billy Coenen says McKinney's trial has been set for April tenth.

SECTION: State and Regional

HEADLINE: Audit of evidence room to be turned over to prosecutors

DATELINE: WEST DES MOINES, Iowa

An internal audit which showed several pieces of evidence from criminal investigations were missing from the police department's evidence room will be turned over to prosecutors, police officials said.

Lt. Jeff Miller, a West Des Moines Police Department spokesman, declined to release specifics of what evidence was missing. The investigation is part of the case of former evidence room technician Charles Edward, Graham, 43, of Cumming.

The evidence room is kept locked but is not kept under video surveillance.

It's not believed any evidence was contaminated during the thefts, Miller said.

Other cases have gone to trial and there have been no problems with evidence, he said.

As a result of the thefts, the department no longer keeps cash that isn't tied to a case in the evidence room. Instead, money that isn't evidence, will be taken to City Hall and deposited in a bank, Miller said.

Officials also are working to "change some procedures and policies that would restrict one's access to cash and/or drugs," Miller said.

Graham was arrested following an investigation that stemmed from an August Polk County Crimestoppers tip. He was the sole evidence technician, and as part of his job he checked in, maintained and oversaw all evidence that came into the department's possession.

The audit was conducted by West Des Moines traffic officers, Miller said.

West Des Moines police will conduct interviews this week and next to find a new evidence room technician. Miller said the new employee will begin Feb. 1.

A new state law requires that all applicants take a lie-detector test.

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Information from: The Des Moines Register

SECTION: State and Regional

HEADLINE: Former Chicago police officer sentenced for stealing, selling drugs

DATELINE: CHICAGO

A former Chicago police officer convicted of stealing cocaine from an evidence room and selling it to support a lavish lifestyle he claimed came from gambling winnings has been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.

John L. Smith, 57, maintained his innocence Thursday.

"Everyone the prosecution brought in to testify against me lied," Smith told U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo during his sentencing hearing. "The entire situation is made up by the prosecution because of my (gambling) lifestyle. ... I learned how to win."

Bucklo admonished Smith for not showing any remorse.

Chicago police in 2001 discovered more than 20 kilograms of cocaine missing from an evidence warehouse where Smith had worked for years before retiring in 1999. An investigation followed and a jury last year convicted Smith of drug conspiracy, money laundering and six tax counts.

During his trial, a statistics and gambling expert testified Smith's claim to have financed his lifestyle by playing slots was unreasonable. Prosecutors said while Smith's tax returns showed he won a net $280,000 gambling from 1996 through 2000, casino records showed he actually lost $170,000 during the period.

Since his conviction, Smith has forfeited a $177,000 Rolls-Royce, a Mustang convertible and a Chicago apartment building.

HEADLINE: Woman says she doesn't recall thefts

BYLINE:  Janice Gregorson The Post-Bulletin 

A Rochester woman admits she stole cocaine from the police department evidence room to support her own habit -- but really doesn't remember taking the drugs.

Kelly Marie Abdelkarim Hussein, 30, who worked in the evidence room, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree controlled substance crime Thursday afternoon.

While admitting she took cocaine from evidence packages seized in numerous narcotics cases, Hussein said she has no memory of taking the packages.

Under questioning from her attorney Mark Ostrem, Hussein said she has no doubt she did take the drugs based on the state's evidence but just doesn't remember it.

Hussein told Judge Robert Birnbaum that she began using cocaine in January 2005 and quickly became addicted. She purchased it for her own use.

At the time, Hussein worked as a records clerk for the Rochester Police Department, assigned to the evidence room. She said she was one of several people that had access to evidence.

Authorities allege she took about 500 grams of cocaine from evidence packages seized in more than 30 narcotics cases. Hussein was arrested in early September on suspicion of taking cocaine from the evidence packages over a period of several months. Authorities first discovered missing evidence on Aug. 3, 2005.

Police said an inventory of all narcotics evidence showed that about 46 items, mostly cocaine, were missing from 32 cases.

On Thursday, Hussein admitted possessing "at least in excess of 25 grams" of cocaine. She acknowledged that police recovered some empty packages during a search of her residence.

She said that because of her addiction, she doesn't have an accurate recollection of taking the evidence, but she told the judge there is "no doubt in her mind" she took the packages. She said she vaguely recalls destroying some drugs at her home.

Under terms of the plea agreement, prosecutor G. Paul Beaumaster, the Rice County attorney, dismissed a felony theft charge. He also has agreed to recommend Hussein be given probation rather than prison.

State sentencing guidelines call for an 86-month prison term. Under the agreement, she'd receive probation but a stayed prison sentence could be imposed if she violated terms of probation. She could receive some jail time. Sentencing is set for March 23.

HEADLINE: When the flood ruined DNA samples at NOPD headquarters, it washed away hope for inmates trying to prove their innocence

BYLINE: Michael Perlstein, Staff writer

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When word began filtering through the prison grapevine that Hurricane Katrina had inundated the vast basement evidence lockers at New Orleans Police Department headquarters and the criminal courthouse, hundreds of pretrial inmates quietly cheered. With evidence from rape kits to bags of cocaine underwater for several days, police and prosecutors admitted the chances of obtaining convictions in many cases probably had been washed away.

But to another, much smaller group of inmates, the news has been devastating.

Those inmates, most of them grizzled lifers who already have been locked away for years, were counting on the dusty old evidence to buttress their long-standing claims of innocence. A few of them, according to their defense attorneys, were within months of being granted DNA tests that could have exonerated them outright.

A full accounting of the evidence has not been produced, but the news so far has been grim. Most of the evidence in old cases was flooded and possibly ruined, officials concede, snapping once promising threads of hope for the inmates and their families.

"I cried. I cried for days," said Emily Maw of Innocence Project New Orleans, a nonprofit group dedicated to freeing the wrongfully convicted. "It's horrifying to think that people serving life without parole, whose only chance at freedom was DNA evidence, could have lost that opportunity. In some of these cases, their freedom was waiting for them in the basement, and then suddenly the basement is underwater."

Yolanda Miles is the sister of inmate Darrel Miles, who was convicted of rape in 1978. "When I heard that news about the evidence, it was a blow. Before Katrina, there was a chance for him to be heard again," she said. "Now it sounds like there's no evidence at all."

Restorers are hired

Whether the flooded evidence, especially fragile DNA samples, can be salvaged remains an open question as the Police Department and the Orleans Parish clerk of court's office sort through their respective piles of flooded debris, evidence tags and supporting paperwork. Each office has hired restoration specialists to save what they can.

The Police Department's Central Evidence and Property Room, housed in the basement of its headquarters on Broad Street, contained mostly evidence in unsolved crimes and cases awaiting trial, said Capt. Thomas Smegal, who oversees the operation. Some of the pieces, though, were from cases under appeal in which inmates had obtained court orders to re-examine evidence.

The stockpile included a vast inventory of critical forensic items: weapons, bloody clothing, bullet fragments, hair, fibers, bodily fluids from rapes and murders, countless baggies of narcotics, two-by-fours, even a kitchen sink or two ripped off in architectural thefts.

When the levees broke, the water in the basement rose slowly at first, Smegal said, but eventually it rose past the ceiling and into the first floor. The evidence losses could potentially torpedo dozens, maybe hundreds, of cases awaiting trial, prosecutors have said. But officers assigned to the police evidence room salvaged most of the delicate DNA samples before Katrina wreaked her havoc, Smegal said.

Those samples were moved to refrigerators in the coroner's office and higher floors of police headquarters, all of which remained dry, he said. Even so, the viability of the evidence is in question. While the slides and glassine envelopes containing the DNA were saved, the loss of refrigeration when electricity and generators gave out could pose problems.

"They haven't been tested, so I can't speak for the integrity of the samples," Smegal said.

Back to square one

Even more depressing to the lifers with innocence claims is the condition of the clerk of court's sprawling basement vaults under the courthouse at Tulane and Broad. Most of the evidence stored there came from closed cases, those that had gone to trial and resulted in a conviction. That is precisely the evidence that inmates with innocence claims were relying on to get their cases reopened.

"The water put everything in disarray," Clerk of Court Kimberly Williamson Butler said in an earlier interview. She did not respond to recent calls for comment.

According to Maw, 19 inmates from New Orleans had already filed court petitions asking for testing of DNA samples in an attempt to show they were wrongfully convicted. About 100 more promising cases were being reviewed by the Innocence Project when Katrina hit, she said.

One case already in the pipeline was that of Leroy Johnson, convicted in 1992 of raping a woman in Algiers. Ever since he was found guilty and sent to the State Penitentiary at Angola, Johnson has claimed he was railroaded. The Innocence Project seemed to score a breakthrough earlier this year when attorneys discovered through a court order that some DNA evidence had been saved from the original crime scene.

Now Johnson and his family are dealing with another, perhaps irreversible, setback.

"When the Innocence Project took his case, things seemed to be moving," said Johnson's sister, Rosetta Palmer. "But then we heard about the flooding and it seemed to put everything back to square one. He called just the other night and told me how upset he was. He really wants that DNA test."

In December, Innocence Project attorneys filed a motion compelling the clerk's office to account for the evidence in nine cases that were among the group's most promising. Chief Judge Calvin Johnson scheduled a hearing for Feb. 6 for Butler to respond, but the Innocence Project discovered several troubling facts in researching the motion.

Twist of fate

"In some cases, rape kits and other biological evidence were located in the Criminal Court attic," staff attorney Ava de Montagne wrote in the motion. "This evidence subsequently was transported down to the basement. The supervisor of the property room had informed counsel that he was keeping all of this found evidence in a single pile in the downstairs evidence rooms."

In what amounts to a cruel twist to an already tragic situation, de Montagne said she is referring to pieces of long-lost evidence that were once thought to be destroyed. When the Innocence Project attorneys learned of its existence in the attic early in the year, the clerk's office moved it to the basement.

"It's very sad and extremely frustrating," she said. "I pushed so hard to get into that attic; now I wonder if they (the inmates) wouldn't be better off if I hadn't gotten involved at all."

Judge Johnson said he sympathizes with inmates who may have lost their rightful shot at freedom.

"I understand their perspective, but if an item no longer exists because of a force of nature, there's nothing anybody can do," Johnson said. "These are tough and painful lessons, but we're going to learn from them and we're going to improve our operation."

Maw recalls the first telephone conversation she had with de Montagne, her Innocence Project colleague, after Katrina hit. Both had evacuated: Maw to Jackson, Miss., de Montagne to Decatur, Ga.

"Emily, the basement! The basement!" de Montagne said.

"I know, I know," Maw replied. "I can't even talk about it."

At that point, both attorneys began crying.

Maw said she has spoken to many of the group's clients and prospective clients during a recent visit to Angola. While the largely forgotten lifers have peppered her with questions and expressed varying levels of dismay, she has been reluctant to snuff out their hopes until the office obtains a full and official accounting of the evidence.

Away from her clients, though, Maw said she has been crushed by the turn of events.

"It's just heartbreaking," she said. "So much hinges on this evidence, but so little regard was paid to it. Surely the people who run New Orleans' public institutions had a notion that things kept in the basement could flood. Why couldn't it just have been spare furniture? Why was it used to store critical, irreplaceable evidence?"

Michael Perlstein can be reached at mperlstein@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316. 

HEADLINE: Detective admits cocaine theft

BYLINE: PEGGY WRIGHT, DAILY RECORD

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Suspended cop forfeits job, faces prison

MORRISTOWN -- Suspended Dover Detective Steven Brennan will forfeit his job and could be sent to state prison for up to three years after pleading guilty Tuesday to stealing cocaine for his own use from a department evidence safe in June.

With the support of three fellow officers in court, the 42-year-old detective pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent Ahto to official misconduct by swiping a small amount of cocaine from the evidence safe on June 13.

He said the cocaine was strictly for his own use. Morris County Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Redden later said there is no evidence that Brennan stole drugs on any occasion other than June 13.

While his plea bargain calls for up to three years in state prison, Brennan is expected to apply for an early release under the state's Intensive Supervision Program after serving about three months. If he isn't accepted for early parole, he would be considered for release after serving nine or 10 months in prison. Redden said his office will assess how Brennan is faring in prison when he applies for ISP before it decides whether to oppose or acquiesce to his entry into ISP.

Defense lawyer Peter Gilbreth said he will argue for a lighter term when Brennan is sentenced on Feb. 24, but Ahto warned Brennan in court to be prepared to get three years. Gilbreth said that Brennan confessed to his superiors as soon as the theft was discovered, completed a 28-day, in-patient substance abuse program and is involved in aftercare programs and counseling.

"We're really going to be pushing for the ISP," Gilbreth said, noting that the prison term was the most lenient the prosecutor's office would offer Brennan.

The officer, who is separated from his wife and living with his ailing father in Rockaway, admitted to the judge that he took a bag of cocaine from the evidence room and later ingested it. Authorities have said the drugs were left over from a long-resolved criminal case and should have been destroyed.

Brennan was charged with official misconduct and cocaine possession on July 2, after another officer found an empty evidence bag in a patrol car used by Brennan and turned it over to a superior. Brennan, who was earning $77,522 annually as a detective, was released after his arrest on condition he enter and complete a 28-day substance abuse program at Sunrise House in Lafayette.

Can't go back

He was suspended without pay within days of his arrest, and as a result of his guilty plea, will never be allowed to work in law enforcement or in a public position again in New Jersey.

On Aug. 2, the day he was released from Sunrise House, he was charged with driving under the influence when he struck a stop sign and pole on Richards Avenue.

Brennan had been prescribed the anti-depressant drug Lexapro and he had no alcohol in his system at the time of the crash. Because he was under the influence of medication and should not have been driving on Aug. 2, he pleaded guilty in November in municipal court in Randolph --where the case was transferred -- to driving while intoxicated. He received a seven-month loss of his driver's license, Gilbreth said.

Police Chief Harold "Butch"Valentine showed up in Superior Court on Tuesday for the hearing but left before Brennan pleaded. Fellow officers remained, including Capt. Robert Kerwick, Sgt. Barry Young and Detective Justin Gabrys, who declined comment afterward, as did Brennan.

Brennan was convicted of drunken driving more than a decade ago while on the force, and was among five officers in 1998 who sued former, now-deceased police Chief Brian Kelly over his alcoholism and perceived mismanagement of the department.

Peggy Wright can be reached at (973) 267-1142 or pwright@gannett.com.

HEADLINE: Rat ate evidence

BYLINE: GEORGE McGINN Staff Writer

Police suspect rodents are the culprit

Police suspect rodents at fault

NORTH PORT -- Marijuana, cocaine and narcotics began disappearing from the evidence room, and police say they've found the culprit -- rats.

About a month ago, North Port Police Department evidence and property technician Pamela Schmidt picked up a bag and noticed that it looked like it had been chewed through, said Capt. Robert Estrada.

Estrada said he doesn't know how much damage was done, and it will take a month to go through all the bins.

"There have always been some sightings (of rats) throughout the building, but never before in evidence," he said.

Police found rat droppings inside many evidence bins.

Estrada said some narcotics and marijuana were eaten by the rats, but did not know how much was eaten.

"The also ate away the plastic wrapping holding two beer cans," he said. "The only thing holding the two cans together was the wrapping on the top and bottom of the cans."

He said it looked as if they were eating away at the bags to see what was inside.

Some of the damaged evidence had been set to be destroyed, he said. But evidence for some cases awaiting trial might have been damaged.

Estrada said Schmidt is taking photos of the damage, and is going through each bin, cleaning them and rewrapping the evidence.

Estrada said he doesn't know how this will affect active cases, though the chain of custody has been maintained.

"We will have to contact the State Attorney's Office," he said.

Estrada explained that once the evidence is tested and weighed by the SAO, there should not be any problems. He said he's not sure if any of the damaged evidence has been sent to the SAO.

North Port Animal Control has set traps and caught some of the offenders, Estrada said, adding the last rat anyone saw in the police department was sometime last week.

"We were so close to moving into our new building," Estrada said. "Just three more weeks."

Estrada said the evidence room at the new police station has bins that roll out like those in a bank vault.

"We just want to make sure we do not take any rats with us (when we move)," Estrada said.

Several years ago, the department had to condemn the holding cells. This is where they stored evidence for years. However, as the department outgrew the building, there was less space to store evidence. Much was placed in recycling bins.

The new police department is expected to open next month along Sumter Boulevard.

You can e-mail George McGinn at gmcginn@sun-herald.com.

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1

HEADLINE: Seized drugs were hot property;
Literally untold millions from MPD evidence room

BYLINE: Chris Conley

For three years, Memphis police made drug arrests, dutifully gave the drugs to property room workers and waited to make their cases in court.

They had no idea those workers were wheeling those same drugs right back out the door - right back onto the street.

Now, almost three months after a drug lord who sold more than a half-ton of that cocaine earned a 24-year prison term, the scope of the property room case is clearer.

It netted more than 100 people, including one part-time judge and two workers who took more than $100,000 to look the other way. More than 1,300 pounds of cocaine was sold on the street as crack at rock-bottom prices - enough to fuel thousands of users for months. And untold millions in profits spread the bling from Texas to Atlanta.

And all of it was being stolen right out from under the Memphis Police Department's nose.

As brazen as the thefts were, it wasn't the first time the police property room - the place where evidence is stored until it can be used in criminal trials - had seen its security compromised.

In 1999, an audit told police officials that the property room's security practices were suspect, at best.

Ultimately, the case left an astounding amount of money in criminal hands.

Willie Woods, a West Tennessee drug dealer who recently pleaded guilty in federal court, turned over: $2 million in cash, $334,786 from a bank account, luxury properties in Bolivar and Oakland, a dozen vehicles - mostly expensive SUVs - and several motorcycles, diamond-embedded white gold bracelets and necklaces, including one with "NUCK" spelled out in diamonds.

When a team of Memphis police and federal agents raided former property room supervisor Kenneth Dansberry's Cordova home, they found more than $1 million - cash stuffed in everything from coolers to cardboard boxes in the attic.

He was earning so much more than his $33,000 civilian salary, he couldn't spend it fast enough.

In August 2002, an informant told a Memphis detective that things were being stolen from the department's evidence room.

"At first we thought it was theft of property," said Memphis Police Deputy Chief Dewey Betts, who supervised the Organized Crime Unit. "We didn't know drugs were involved."

Then, in October 2002, OCU detective Dion Cicinelli went to the property room to inspect 1,500 pounds of marijuana seized in a raid.

The clerk, Dansberry, fumbled around at first and produced 1,500 grams of pot - not even close to 1,500 pounds.

Finally, he scrambled and scraped together 1,500 pounds of pot that Cicinelli knew didn't come from his case.

Now OCU knew the property room thefts involved drugs, too.

Police officials called in the FBI because it involved thefts by city employees. They called in the Drug Enforcement Administration, too.

And because the circumstances were so unusual, a new investigative template was created.

Agents from the Memphis Police Department, DEA, FBI and IRS were used - but because even the tiniest leak would've killed the case, only the most trusted agents were clued in - a core of about 15 people.

It worked: Word of the investigation never got out until Sept. 30, 2003, when Dansberry and the other property room principals were arrested.

As they investigated, the agents learned that kilograms of cocaine swiped from the property room were being sold for $10,000 - less than half the going rate.

Much of it was converted to crack, which can contain less than 20 percent actual cocaine.

"It was pure profit," said DEA agent-in-charge Andy Dimond. "They were blowing the competition away, undercutting so many people."

The job now was to find out who "they" were.

As it turned out, they were all over the place, in property room jobs, lawyers' offices, in Texas, in Atlanta, in small towns in West Tennessee.

"The scope was so large," said FBI special agent Brian Burns. "It was important to bring it to as quick a conclusion as possible, and at the same time to thoroughly investigate."

Time was of the essence.

"You only have the element of surprise for so long," said Howard Marshall, who heads the FBI white collar unit here.

And keeping quiet was key.

"We knew if we moved hard, and kept it quiet, we would get results," said Asst. U.S. Atty. Tom Colthurst.

Agents quickly sneaked into the old International Harvester plant - used to store the bulkiest drug seizures - and found evidence that confirmed the suspected thefts.

That gave them knowledge to work with when two dealers picked up in 2003 said they'd bought drugs stolen from the property room. That led to indictments of 17 people, including Dansberry, other property room workers, and a big-time Atlanta-based dealer, Patrick Maxwell.

In Dansberry's Cordova home, agents found a garbage bag full of cash, molded over so badly they couldn't count it.

Dansberry and his cohorts spilled their guts, some of them saying they'd stolen so much, they had no idea how much they'd taken.

The investigation led to one prominent Memphis lawyer. Part-time judge Scott Crawford was convicted of laundering profits from property room cocaine through his firm.

All those charged locally have pleaded guilty: No one has gone to trial.

To try to ensure such thievery never happens again, police are building a new property and evidence room.

All evidence will be bar-coded and tracked by computer.

Drug-destruction teams of police officers and city auditors will destroy drugs no longer needed as evidence.

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The case unfolds

The initial, unspecific, tip comes in August 2002.

In October, an OCU detective asks to see 1,500 pounds of marijuana from one of his cases. The dope he's shown isn't his.

In March 2003, agents sneak into the old International Harvester plant, which was used for storage, and find narcotics wrappers on the floor. If the narcotics had been burned, as they should've been, the wrappings should have been burned, too.

In April 2003, the agents find a cocaine brick in the International Harvester plant with a number that doesn't exist in property room computers. Someone is erasing entries.

That same month, drug dealers tell DEA agents about buying drugs stolen from the property room. They lead investigators to dealers Eric Brown and Atlanta resident Patrick Maxwell. Their info leads to indictments against 17 people in September, including property room employees.

In summer 2003, the FBI gets Department of Justice clearance for wire taps, and starts listening.

In late September 2003, the first big take-down comes.

In the following months, drug dealers caught up in the property room case name other drug sources, people not directly connected to the property room.

In September 2005, prosecutors unseal indictments against those drug rings. One in Texas involves 55 people.

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GRAPHIC: Photo; Police photo, Drug money taken from the home of a former Memphis
Police property room manager.

SECTION: NWS; NEWS; Pg. 1

HEADLINE: EX-OFFICER GETS PRISON IN THEFTS;
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LOST $308,736

BYLINE: By DAVID ASHENFELTER

Patrick Wynne says it took a 25-day stint in jail for nonpayment of child support for him to finally identify with the victims of his crimes.

"I can see now the impact I had on the people that I did it to - I do ask for their forgiveness," a remorseful Wynne, 33, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement property officer, said during sentencing Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

U.S. District Judge Julian Cook sentenced Wynne of Monroe to 57 months in prison for stealing $308,736 from hundreds of illegal immigrants who were locked up pending deportation proceedings. Most of the thefts happened at the Monroe County Jail, where the government houses illegal immigrants.

Wynne told Cook that his federal training taught him not to get attached to illegal immigrants, making it easier for him to steal from them.  "I allowed myself to become an individual who looked at people and didn't see a person, didn't see a name, didn't see a face. I saw bodies. I saw detainees. I saw traffic."

Wynne said it took losing his job and spending 25 days in the Calhoun County Jail in October for failing to pay child support to make him understand how powerless his victims were.

Cook also ordered Wynne to pay $308,736 in restitution to his victims, plus $157,000 to the government to reimburse it for returning property to its rightful owners, who now live in Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe.

Wynne, who is free on a $5,000 bond, must report to prison on March 24.

Federal prosecutors say Wynne stole the cash   between 2000 and 2004.

As property officer, Wynne had the responsibility of safeguarding the property of illegal immigrants awaiting deportation.

Agents began investigating after several immigrants complained that the government had failed to return all of their property.

In February 2004, during an interview with agents at his home, Wynne admitted stealing money and other items from the immigrants.

A search of his home, garage, storage locker, government vehicles and office at the Monroe County Jail turned up luggage, backpacks and more than 100 government property bags - many of them containing shoes, clothing, photos, letters, Bibles and other possessions of the immigrants.

Wynne had neglected to throw the items away after rifling the luggage and bags for cash.

Although Wynne pleaded guilty last July to stealing more than $70,000 in cash from more than 50 detainees as part of a plea deal, Magistrate Judge Mona Majzoub pegged the losses at $308,736 and 479 victims during an evidentiary hearing.

Wynne was suspended with pay in June 2004 and resigned in November 2004.

Wynne's lawyer, Michael McCarthy of Redford Township, wanted Wynne to be sentenced at the low end of the sentencing range.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Judge wanted Wynne sentenced at the high end of the range.

Court officials told Cook he could sentence Wynne to up to 71 months in prison because his victims were vulnerable. But in the end, Cook went with the high end of the original plea deal.

Judge said the government would continue trying to get the property back to its rightful owners.

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490 or ashenf@freepress.com.

ILLUSTRATION: 2004 photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA Detroit Free Press

GRAPHIC: Darwin Paz, Monroe County Sheriff's Office jail administrator, surveys the office that once belonged to Patrick Wynne, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement property officer. Most of the thefts happened at the Monroe County Jail, where immigration detainees were held.